Do WinDVD Pro Xpacks work in Windows 32 and 64 bit?

[Michel Merlin]

Do WinDVD Pro Xpacks work in Windows 32 and 64 bit?

I just UPgraded from Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate to Windows XP64 bit. This comes with Windows Media Player 10. I refuse "updates" (WMP11 will lose many efficient features).

WMP as such can't play DVDs or Blu-rays; recommends Advanced Corel DVD Decoders. The 2 1st ones ("DVD Xpack" and "DVD + AVCHD Xpack") are said compatible with "Windows XP Windows Vista Windows 7" but this doesn't mention 32 and 64 bit variants.

Can I buy one and be sure it will install and work in Windows XP 64 bit? TIA,

Versailles, Mon 15 Dec 2014 07:25:00 +0100

[DVDDoug]

I don't know, but I don't see that it supports Blu-Ray.

I have WinDVD running on Win7 64-bit and it plays DVDs & Blu-Ray. VLC (FREE!) will play DVDs and most audio/video formats, but it does not play commercial Bly-Ray discs (at least not "as supplied").

[Ken Berry]

VLC (FREE!) will play DVDs and most audio/video formats, but it does not play commercial Bly-Ray discs

I'm a bit surprised by this. My own version of VLC Player (x64) certainly plays Blu-Ray discs, though not their menus for some arcane reason. And most of my BD discs are commercial ones. Moreover, it will play just about any other format, standard or high definition, including AVCHD and Blu-Ray mpeg-2, as well as HDV. It also plays formats such as MKV.

[Michel Merlin]

Blu-ray discs don't play anymore in MPC-HC or VLC!

Thanks DVDDoug and Ken Berry for your replies.

I too was surprised to read that Blu-ray discs won't play... but I checked, and yes, the few Blu-ray discs I have (3 commercial films, quite legit, bought in big stores) don't play, neither in WMP (the optical drive is simply grayed), nor in MPC-HC 1.7.7 ("Cannot find DVD directory"), nor in VLC 2.1.5 ("Path doesn't appear to be a Blu-ray"). My new Windows XP64 desktop PC may lack some decoders since those Blu-ray did play in my old Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate laptop.

I rechecked that DVDs play no problem in both MPC-HC and VLC, but NOT in WMP10 ("Windows Media Player cannot play the DVD because a compatible DVD decoder is not installed"); and that Audio CDs play in MPC-HC and WMP (but crash in VLC!).

Now that this Blu-ray question (judiciously brought by DVDDoug) is addressed, remains my initial one: Do WinDVD Pro Xpacks work in Windows XP 64 bit?

I should have posted what I did before: I wanted to enable DVD play in WMP (in addition to MPC-HC, VLC and others), so I went WMP10 > Tools > Plug-ins > Download Plug-ins > Plug-ins and add-ons for Windows Media Player:

• ROXIO CinePlayer DVD Decoder, Get for Windows XP > Roxio DVD DECODER for Windows XP, $14.99
• Corel's Advanced DVD Decoders, Get for Windows XP > Advanced Corel DVD Decoders: DVD Xpack (XP/Vista/7) $12.42, DVD + AVCHD Xpack (XP/Vista/7) $14.94, Ultimate Xpack (7) $19.88
• Cyberlink PowerDVD SE, Get for Windows XP > PowerDVD SE DVD Decoder $14.95
• NVIDIA DVD Decoder, Get for Windows XP > PureVideo Decoder: Stereo $12.95, Dolby $29.95, DTS $49.95

Versailles, Mon 15 Dec 2014 15:52:20 +0100

[canuck]

Why did you "downgrade" your Operating System from W7 to Windows XP?

[Karrahahu1]

The 2 1st ones ("DVD Xpack" and "DVD + AVCHD Xpack") are said compatible with "Windows XP Windows Vista Windows 7" but this doesn't mention 32 and 64 bit variants.???